2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

is the pattern in which I make progress with my diabetes. The past couple blog entries have been written with a “yes we can” attitude – I have made progress with my diabetes and so has my Papa. But this past weekend I was far from a straight-A student.

My best friend (and maid of honor), Emily, has lived far away from me ever since she graduated high school a year ahead of me and left Orange Country for the forward-thinking, hippie-loving town of Berkeley. Since then we’ve both moved to a few different places but the land distance between us has always been great enough to limit our visits to about 2 (if we’re lucky, 3) per year (with the brief exception of a couple years when I was in Santa Cruz and Emily was in San Francisco). When Emily was accepted to UVA for grad school I was beside myself with the excitement that one of my favorite people would no longer be a full day of airplane travel away, but instead just a 3 hour and 40 minute drive. Last weekend was my first visit to Thomas Jefferson’s old stomping grounds and the first opportunity to celebrate Emily’s relocation to the east coast. Emily and I did what we always do when we see each other: talk, laugh, tell stories, eat good food, go on long walks, stay up late, be merry, and drink bubbly wine and pink cosmos.

My BGLs (blood glucose levels) were awful all weekend. The problems with drinking alcohol are:

1. I tend to eat less healthy foods after having too many drinks (this weekend’s most notable digression: frozen yogurt)
2. I improperly gauge the amount of carbohydrates in the foods I’m eating
3. I delay giving myself insulin – okay, let’s be honest, I forget to give myself insulin, then I remember a little while later – the result is that my BGL has already climbed up before I give myself insulin, then the insulin takes 1-2 hours to take effect. Thus, my BGL remains higher for longer than usual.
4. I don’t sleep as well after having too much alcohol. I’ve noticed that my BGL tends to be higher when I have not gotten enough sleep.
5. The next morning I wake up with the usual hangover many people experience, in addition to a dosage of guilt that I have just taken steps away from the state of health I usually work so hard to achieve.

Since returning home to Carrboro I have had very little to drink and have obsessively been checking my BGL. I went running last night, had a challenging and yummy yoga session this morning, and plan to take a long run tomorrow morning before visiting the farmers market. These activities make me feel good. I feel clean and brilliant after days filled with fresh veggies, exercise and conscious breathing. Despite feeling calm yet energized from such healthy living, I still find myself craving the fun, loose-lipped, social evenings infused with more than one drink. I don’t want to give up these social evenings but I do want to continue to decrease my intake of alcohol so I need to find a way to experience these evenings without alcohol. Thankfully I have the support of my future husband, Matt, who is also committed to this goal. Tasks are always easier when you have a teammate.

This past week Matt and I hosted two very active and inspiring friends, Jean and Trent. Jean introduced me to Franklin Street Yoga and Lori, the excellent instructor who kicked my asana this morning while speaking words of kindness and love. Jean and Trent encouraged me to sign up for the Outer Banks half-marathon by describing the route as fairly flat and the people as friendly and supportive. When I first heard the term “peer pressure” as a teenager, it had a negative connotation. However, as I have surrounded myself with active, well-intentioned, healthy people, I have found that peer pressure can actually be a very good thing.

This week’s menu is:

Weelicious Spinach Ricotta Bites

http://weelicious.com/2010/07/29/spinach-ricotta-bites/

To cut back on the cheese I: added an egg and used 1/2 cup chia seed jelly and only 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese (instead of ½ a cup) and 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese (instead of ½ cup). Chia seed jelly ratio: mix 1 Tbsp chia seed into 4.5 oz water; chia seeds can be found at: http://getchia.com/?gclid=CJyj7srAyKMCFQ1HnQodBD2Msg

Heirloom Tomato, Summer Peach, and Fresh Herb Gazpacho Salad

http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62435722/Heirloom-Tomato-Summer-Peach-and-Fresh-Herb-Gazpacho-Salad/Detail.aspx

Quinoa with Garlic and Onions

http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62435725/Quinoa-with-Garlic-and-Onions/Detail.aspx

Steamed Broccoli Seasoned with Butter, Salt and Pepper

106 Papa, 78 Me, and 95 Grandma

The morning after eating last week’s meal, these were the blood sugars that my Papa, my grandma (who controls her type 2 diabetes with diet and exercise), and I woke up with. Diabetics constantly check their blood sugars. A three-year old friend of mine recently asked, “why are you always doing your diabetes?” (translation: checking my blood sugar and giving myself insulin) – I explained to him that my diabetes never goes away so I always need to check how much sugar is in my blood. If there is too much sugar in my blood, I give myself a shot of insulin; if there is too little sugar in my blood, I eat an orange-flavored glucose tablet or two; and if there is just the right amount of sugar in my blood I smile, nod my head, and contain the urge to get up and dance in celebration.

Getting one’s blood sugar (also called, “blood glucose level” – will use “BGL” here for short) into the healthy range and keeping it in that range can be a heated battle for diabetics, especially those with type 1. A person’s BGL can be affected by: stress, exercise, hormone levels, menstruation, pregnancy, food, insulin, medication, illness, alcohol, etc. One of the first things I had to wrap my head around when I was learning about diabetes as a kid was the fact that a diabetic could have too low a blood sugar. I remember my Papa having yet another high blood sugar and saying to me, “too high, again” to which I, as a not-yet-diabetic 8 year old, replied, “I wish your blood sugar was 0”. This comment prompted my Papa to say, “oh – no, no, no, no, don’t wish that – you need to have some sugar in your blood.” I was baffled that BGL could be too high and too low – this disease suddenly seemed completely impossible.

The numbers listed in the heading of this entry are perfect. They are those beautiful, hard-to-attain, numbers that diabetics wish they could see every time they stick their finger and put blood on a test strip for their glucose machine to read. If I were to grade BGL in a traditional A-F academic style, it would look something like this (keep in mind, each diabetic would probably set these grades slightly differently):

200 and above: F

180-200: D

150-179: C

120-149: B

70-119: A

60-69: B

55-59: C

45-55: D

45 and below: F

My grandma has woken up with A+ blood sugars for the past four days and has not eaten meat for 5 days. This prompted my grandma to email the following question: “would no meat affect my blood sugars?” I think the answer to this question is that the foods she’s been filling up on in place of her usual meat intake have been affecting her blood sugars. It takes a lot more vegetables to satiate a person than it does meat. While abstaining from meat my grandparents have been eating more vegetables – zucchini pancakes with zucchini from their garden is their latest discovery. I am thrilled that my grandparents are both eating more veggies. I’m also thrilled that they feel motivated to continue cooking these weekly menus because of the immediate effects they’ve seen on their blood sugars. I’m proud to share that I too have been experiencing some impressive results. I’ve been cooking more often, eating more veggies, running more, and practicing yoga ever since starting this blog. The result is that my BGL logbook is filled with far more A’s and far fewer F’s than I’ve seen in years J

This week’s meal is the first meal for which each recipe was completely new to me. Two of the recipes came from my new cookbook, “Fast, Fresh and Green” by Susie Middleton. I invited over the Wunkler family, which consists of two foodie friends who love playing ultimate Frisbee and their awesome dog, Kaya. They brought over a beautiful bouquet of flowers (photographed above with my dog, Abby). This week’s meal had a citrus theme that I didn’t notice until partway through dinner. The potatoes were flavored with lemon and the green beans with orange. I made the green beans a second time this week and placed them on top of brown rice – the result was delicious.

This week’s menu:

Tomato Basil Salad

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tomato-Basil-Salad/Detail.aspx

Caramelized Green Beans and Sweet Onions

http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62424541/Caramelized-Green-Beans-and-Sweet-Onions/Detail.aspx

Oven-roasted Baby Potatoes with Creamy Lemon Dressing

http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62424536/Oven-roasted-Baby-Potatoes-with-Creamy-Lemon-Dressing/Detail.aspx